World of Warcraft
| genre = Massively multiplayer online role-playing | members = }} World of Warcraft, often abbreviated to WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft takes place within the fantasy world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. At BlizzCon in October 2010, lead producer J. Allen Brack announced that there would be a fourth expansion set for the game, which is Mists of Pandaria. With more than 12 million subscribers as of October 2010, World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. In-Yogiverse The Yogscast was founded by Lewis in 2008 to provide a platform for the World of Warcraft videos he produced along with his fellow Ye Olde Goone Squade guild members. Lewis started making videos after watching a series of WoW dungeon boss guides on YouTube which he deemed to be of low quality, which nonetheless received thousands of views.w:c:yogpod:Interview on The Incredible Podcast Lewis and Simon managed to gain access to the Cataclysm Beta and thus they ventured into a new world in which they faced Dragons, Elementals, and flying Bears. Honeydew (Simon) got himself into a lot of mischief and Xephos (Lewis) joined him, as they checked-out the new zones, heroics, and raids. "How to" Guides The first videos Lewis produced for the channel were "How To:" guides for the various raid bosses encountered in the game. As YOGS was a relatively high-end guild, they were often within the first 200 guilds to defeat new bosses. At the time online video content on said bosses was rare or of low quality and thus Lewis saw an online audience niche that could be filled.w:c:yogpod:Interview on The Incredible Podcast While the guides started off as typical "How to:" videos with a bit of humor interejcted, they gradually broke further-and-further from the traditional formula into freeform videos involving rambling comedic commentary from Lewis and Simon while raid footage played in the background. These videos were the eventual inspiration for the YoGPoD. In 2008 Lewis and Simon were given access to the Wrath of the Lich King beta by a Blizzard employee who was a fan of their videos and so they produced a number of videos detailing upcoming quests and features in the new expansion, such as How To: Ride a Storm King. It wasn't until the Cataclysm beta that they returned to more serious How To: guides. ''Cataclysm Beta Showcasing Simon and Lewis got access to the ''Cataclysm ''Beta (and Alpha) when two people pretended to be them and got Alpha passes from Blizzard. They were so shocked that they even got the passes that they gave them to Simon and Lewis anyway. They began a short play-through series of ''World of Warcraft content at the release of Cataclysm Beta. They went through the newly released zones as well as the zones that had major quest updates. They even had a look at some of the unfinished zones, previously unseen by the public. Xephos in WoW On his Ye Olde Goone Squade profile, Xephos's World of Warcraft character is listed as "Zephos," playing on TheVenture Co. server in the "Guild of Mearis". Honeydew in WoW On his Ye Olde Goone Squade profile, Honeydew's World of Warcraft character is listed as "Honeydew," a Human Paladin playing on the Venture Co. Server. Honeydew also has a Dwarf Hunter character called "Honeybeard". Hannah in WoW Hannah is well-known to have a Night Elf Druid as her main due to it being the only character of hers to be featured in Yogscast WoW videos, despite having multiple appearances. This is also due to Simon and Lewis' prevalent distaste of her race, Night Elfs and mentioning this fact (that Hannah's main is one) when showing this distaste. Sjin in WoW In the "About" section of the Ye Olde Goone Squade home page, a history of the guild is given, in which "the Night Elf Hunter Sjin" is mentioned under the heading "Past Achievements". Episode Guide Trivia * Simon and Lewis' World of Warcraft series is the longest running Yogscast series in history with around 500 videos, beating the Civilization V series and Shadow Of Israphel. References Category:Games Category:WoW Category:Hannah Rutherford Category:Sjin Category:Sips Category:Lewis Brindley Category:Simon Lane